ELR News - Is Latinos For Trump…OVER?! + Q&A w/ NYC Chief Equity Officer Afua Atta-Mensa

The Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show

The episode covers a range of significant political developments, beginning with the recent House vote regarding Representative Al Green's i

Key takeaways

House Democrats voted to table Representative Al Green's impeachment motion, with Hakeem Jeffries voting 'present' to focus on affordability issues.
A Cook Political Report indicates declining support for Donald Trump among Texas Latino voters, with some Democratic candidates leading in key races.
Representative Everton Blair criticized Speaker Mike Johnson for sending Congress home early and noted the low number of standalone bills passed compared to previous sessions.
The Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act Part 2 is currently stalled in the House due to leadership decisions.
NYC Chief Equity Officer Afua Atta-Mensa detailed the Racial Equity Plan (REP), which outlines goals for 45 agencies through 2034.

Main topics

House Impeachment Motion
Supreme Court Vacancies
Texas Latino Voter Trends

Notable quotes

Democrats are scared to look unfocused this close to the midterm elections.

Conclusion

The episode highlights the intersection of legislative strategy and co

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:07) Hey, everybody. Welcome to ELR News. My name is Laura Stiles. I'm here with the incredible. Hey, Speaker 1 (0:14) this is Kevin Ortega-Rojas. Speaker 5 (0:16) Yes, where we give you the headlines, the big topics that we feel you should care about. What's going on, Kevin? Speaker 1 (0:22) I got Victoria Monet tickets. You Speaker 5 (0:24) did? I Speaker 1 (0:25) did. I just wanted to say that. Speaker 5 (0:27) But Speaker 1 (0:27) that's not what we're here to talk about. So House Democrats yesterday helped Republicans kill. Representative Al Green's motion to impeach Donald Trump. And it's been a little confusing because if you look at the actual votes, it says that 147 Democrats voted against and 18 voted with. So to explain this process, Representative Al Green used a procedural tool that's known as a privileged resolution, which means he forced the House to take a vote. on his impeachment inquiry that he submitted late last month in August. And so when you use a privilege resolution, the House has two days to take it up for a vote, and they don't have a choice about it. And so he forced the House to take a vote, but before they could vote on actually impeaching, Republicans introduced a motion to table. His vote. Right. So the vote that they actually had yesterday was to kill his impeachment bill. And so 18 Democrats voted with all Republicans to kill the bill. Forty five Democrats voted present so as to not pick a side that included leaders like Hakeem Jeffries and 147 Democrats voted against killing the bill because they wanted to advance the impeachment inquiry. What was your immediate reaction to that whole debacle? Speaker 5 (1:55) So when I when I read it first, I was like, why would they vote against it? Because I a why would they vote against? And then I thought about how many, you know, this man has been impeached before and nothing happens. Right. So it's like, is it because it's a waste of time? There are bigger fish to fry. I'm that's what I'm trying to understand. Speaker 1 (2:12) So Jeffrey's position in voting presence, because, of course, like at this point, you can't stop. what's already happened. Al Green, you know, requested the resolution. And so there was going to be a vote on it. But Jeffrey's position and why he chose to vote present, he says, is because he wants the American people to know that Democrats are focused on the affordability issue and addressing the needs of the American people. And they know that impeachment right now is a losing battle. He also said, you know. The impeachment process traditionally is a lengthy one with discovery. There are lawyers involved in all of this stuff. And Al Green was really trying to accelerate that process and just get to a vote, which, in my opinion, felt very performative. OK. It feels like we were angry. And I get that. In my opinion, I think that Representative Al Green, because he's outgoing, he's not going to be in Congress next term. I think he put his colleagues in a really bad spot because he forced them to choose between, you know, doing what a lot of the base wants, which is holding Trump accountable, trying to get him out of office. And then there are several members who are currently running in swing districts, who are running in areas where they don't want voters to think that they are distracted or focused on like, you know, these performative procedural. tools that aren't really going to amount too much of anything. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm also of the mind that you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Al Green forced you to take a vote. Even if you lose, just vote for impeachment. Speaker 5 (3:51) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Speaker 1 (3:52) like I, to begin with, I would have told Al Green, don't do this. It's Speaker 5 (3:56) a Speaker 1 (3:56) waste of time. Yes. But once the vote was forced, I would have told Democrats. Just vote to impeach him. Right. It's going to the vote's not going to go anywhere. It's going to lose. But just do it. Yeah. Speaker 5 (4:06) That's what I didn't understand. Like, why not just vote to impeach him, even though we know that it's not going to do much? But why would you take a neutral stance? Speaker 1 (4:13) Democrats are scared to look unfocused this close to the midterm elections. OK. All Speaker 5 (4:18) right. Let's talk about. Oh, my God. So I saw this and I sent this to you, Kevin. Will Democrats block Trump's Supreme Court nominees? This Speaker 1 (4:28) is a really good question that. Honestly, before you sent this video from this creator, I had not really considered. So let's talk about the Supreme Court, but let's watch the video that you sent us. And Speaker 3 (4:38) Samuel Alito are on the ballot this November. The Supreme Court majority hangs in the balance. Why? Because they're 78 and 76, the two oldest members of the court. And because of the genius of this man, he proved that the Senate can simply refuse to confirm a president's nominee. They can just sit there and eat jello instead of doing their jobs. And that's great because conservatives. currently have a 6-3 majority. And it can seem like we'll never have balance again, but we're closer than you might think. Because if these two men retire while we have a Democratic Senate, their seats could remain open and the court could still function until we have a Democratic president in 2029. And then their replacements would give us a 5-4 liberal majority. But if we fail to gain the Senate majority, they can retire next year and President Trump can replace them both with young justices and cement the conservative majority for a generation. That's what's on the ballot this November. Speaker 1 (5:28) Wow. So that's a really interesting scenario that I had not considered. So the question here is, will Democrats use their power once they are in the majority to block Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominees if Alito or Thomas, that one, if either of them either decide to retire or. Nature takes its course and they are no longer with us because they are the oldest Supreme Court justices on the bench right now. So for those who don't remember, back in 2016, Barack Obama did have an opening on the Supreme Court under his presidency. Speaker 1 (6:09) Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away while serving and he nominated Merrick Garland, who at the time sat on the I forgot which which court he sat on, but I think he sat on the appellate court who he ended up becoming the head of the DOJ under Joe Biden. But. Speaker 1 (6:29) Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court and then Republicans under Mitch McConnell blocked it and they delayed the whole process because they said it was too close to an election. And we know that they didn't mean that because back in 2020, we still had Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett forced through. But do you foresee if Democrats are in the majority next year and let's say Alito decides to retire? Speaker 5 (6:58) So I think now, listen, everybody knows that the Democrats need to be stronger. They need to be more aggressive. Right. And this is going to be their chance. Kevin, if they don't do this, it is going to be a huge disappointment in the party. Because I because when I was really thinking about it, who really runs this? The Supreme Court are the biggest dogs. Let's be honest. Right. So if the Democrats drop the ball. it is going to be a huge loss. I mean, this is something that is going to change generations. Yeah. Like it's going to change our children's lives. It's going to change generations. So I truly hope that they wake up and if they win, that they become aggressive enough, just like the Republicans have been and make something happen. I Speaker 1 (7:47) mean, my fear is that the person who ends up leaving the court is not either Alito. or Thomas, that it ends up being Sonia Sotomayor. Like, I feel as anxious about Sotomayor as I did about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, where I'm like, you better be taking all of your vitamins and drinking green juices and going to the doctors as often as possible. Speaker 5 (8:11) You Speaker 1 (8:11) know, and there is also all this discussion about expanding the Supreme Court if Democrats take the majority back and then win in 2029, Democrats want to expand it to 13. The Supreme Court, for those who may not know, the Supreme Court has actually fluctuated in the number of justices since the early 1800s. We've had six justices, then seven, then nine, then 10, then back to nine again. And so it is not unheard of. The number of justices is not in the Constitution. Republicans actually just tried to pass a bill to force a constitutional amendment to solidify that there can only be nine justices.